Strategies of a Facebook Hackers and How You Can Outsmart Them

With one billion users at same place and hacking techniques at disposal, Facebook has become a huge playground for Hackers. They are coming up with different techniques to exploit Facebook and take advantage of user data. Here’s how you can outsmart them and protect your FB account.

Your personal details are sitting inside a vault called Facebook with a crackable password. I have compiled a list of some most used strategies by Hackers to break this vault.

Stealing Photos

All those Photo collections of beautiful women and attractive girls on Porn sites and forums; Where do they come from? They are stolen from personal albums of people’s profile on Facebook and other Social networks. And without user’s consent, they are circulated on web.

Benefit: Hackers sell these photos to such websites which in again earns revenue out of it.

Solution: Photos published are usually the ones which are publicly visible on Facebook. You should take care of visibility of a content you upload on Facebook. Restrict it to “Friends Only” and choose friends wisely, learn to detect fake Facebook profiles.

Duplicate Profile

Hackers create a new profile on Facebook using the same information of an existing user. And then starts sending Friend requests to people who are friends with original profile. If you were the one to receive such request, most probably you will accept it without a second thought. Even I will, because I know that person.

Benefit: After being friends, hacker has elevated access to your personal information to steal. Also, chances are higher that you will click the links sent by your friend which may open website embedded with malware.

Solution: With such a huge friends list, we often forget if we are already friends with some person. But, if there is even 1% of doubt, double check the profile and friend list for same name. Possibly, also notify the real person about this and report the profile to Facebook.

To avoid falling prey to malicious URLs, I personally use Bitdefender to scan links on webpage for me and notify about any danger.

Track using Geo-location

With smartphones, photos captured also contain GPS log which gives out information about your location. If you happen to click a photo nearby your home and upload it on Facebook, your residence location is revealed. It becomes easy for a hacker to reach where you live.

Solution: Keep a check on visibility of Photos.

Cracking Your Account Password

Hacker may use a phishing page to steal your password or use some hacking tool to crack it. If you search on web, there are number of tools available to hack Facebook account. Most of them are fake and may be used against you. But, with a right tool, it’s all possible.

Solution: Have a strong password for Facebook account. You may use one of the password generators to create an unbreakable one.

Using Facebook Apps

Little knowledge is what all you need to create a Facebook application. Hacker creates application with tempting name and content. Maybe revealing some secret about you or offering an iPhone for 50 bucks. On allowing apps, they could fetch all personal information about you. Some apps pretend to be a Free Game but ask for Credit Card information to start playing. Avoid them!

Solution: Don’t allow access to any random app and check permissions before approving. Be wise. Think logically. “Why a gaming app needs access to my phone number?”. Read my article on Stop Facebook Spamming where you can learn how to choose FB apps.

Whatever happens, you are responsible for your account and its protection. I have listed the most used ways to manipulate users but they may come up with some more innovative technique to exploit Facebook. So, you always have to take necessary security precautions while using Facebook.

Phishing attack means taking a victim to a webpage looking similar to Facebook login page. And when you enter login details, they are sent to hacker. So, please notice the web URL in address bar of browser before entering username and password.